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10 most memorable Rutgers games of the decade

After a reprieve, Jeremy Ito's 28-yard field goal with 11 seconds remaining lifted Rutgers to a 28-25 win over Louisville on Nov. 9, 2006. (Photo by Jason Towlen/MyCentralJersey.com)

1.
2006, Rutgers 28, Louisville 25: After missing a previous attempt that was negated by a penalty, Jeremy Ito kicked a tiebreaking 28-yard field goal with 13 seconds left and the Scarlet Knights shocked No. 3 Louisville in a battle of unbeatens at Rutgers Stadium.

When it was over, thousands of the Rutgers Stadium-record crowd 44,111 fans stormed the field, hoisting up the 185-pound Ito and many other Scarlet Knights in celebrating the most improbable win ever for the “Birthplace of College Football.”

Following the most anticipated game in Rutgers history, Scarlet Knights' fans stormed the field in droves. (MyCentralJersey.com file photo)

“”It was a little scary at the end with the mob scene, but it was fun,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said after his No. 15-ranked team improved to 9-0 and vaulted into national championship-contention before a record-setting ESPN Thursday Night audience. “”This is the way college football is supposed to be.”

Rutgers rallied from a 25-7 deficit by shutting out the Cardinals’ explosive offense in the second half. Ray Rice rushed for 75 of his game-high 131 yards in the fourth quarter, when the Scarlet Knights thwarted Brian Brohm with a relentless pass rush and sacked the Cardinals quarterback five times.

While Rutgers had already become bowl-eligible with a 31-21 win over Navy one month before, making the postseason was no guarantee after lopsided losses to USF and Louisville (by a combined 101-36) seemingly derailed a promising season.

But the Scarlet Knights stormed out of the gates early and never looked back, holding the Bearcats to minus-23 yards rushing (thanks to nine sacks) and outgaining their Big East-foes 574-146 in total yards.

Two days later, Rutgers officially turned the corner as a program as it gained a bid to the Insight Bowl.

3.
Dec. 2, 2006: West Virginia 41, Rutgers 39 — Mike Teel’s 2-point conversion pass was batted down in the end zone as the Mountaineers spoiled the Scarlet Knights’ quest for their first Big East championship and BCS berth with a triple-overtime upset in Morgantown.

The ending was a stunning blow for Rutgers, which produced its best regular-season since going 11-0 in 1976 but had to settle for the Texas Bowl instead of the Orange Bowl.

“They have nothing to be ashamed of,” Schiano said after his club fell to 10-2. “They played their hearts out.”

Ray Rice rushed for 90 of his 129 yards after intermission while Teel threw for 278 yards in a defeat that handed Louisville its first Big East title instead.

“There’s a lot of hurt in there,” Schiano said. “There are a lot of sad young men. They have invested a lot in this season and in this week and in this game. Emotionally and physically, it’s just sad.”

4.
Sept. 4, 2004: Rutgers 19, Michigan State 14 — Jeremy Ito drilled four field goals and Ryan Neill scored on a 31-yard interception return to lead the Scarlet Knights to a season-opening win. A Rutgers Stadium-record crowd of 42,612, including Rutgers alumnus and The Sopranos star James Gandolfini, and an ABC-TV national audience witness the Scarlet Knights’ coming out party.

The victory was the biggest in the Schiano era at the time, and it gave the Scarlet Knights hope for their first winning campaign since 1992. Forget that they would lose to Division I-AA-foe New Hamphire the following week — and finish 4-7 overall — this felt like a program-defining win at the time.

5.
Dec. 28, 2006: Rutgers 37, Kansas State 10 — Ray Rice rushed for 170 yards and a touchdown to earn Texas Bowl MVP honors, and Rutgers captured its first bowl championship with a convincing victory over its Big 12 foe in Houston.

“To win the first bowl game after 137 years of playing,” Schiano said, “to say we’re excited would be an understatement.”

Tim Brown added two touchdown receptions and linebacker Quintero Frierson returned an interception for a score as the Scarlet Knights capped their memorable campaign at 11-2.

The Scarlet Knights, playing their first game since their emotionally-deflating, three-overtime loss at West Virginia, held Kansas State to 162 total yards.

“It certainly hurt quite a bit after the West Virginia game, but when you’ve only been to three bowl games in 137 years,” Schiano said, “the chance to win 11 games — that’s something our seniors will carry forever.”

6.
Dec. 27, 2005: Arizona State 45, Rutgers 40 — Ryan Hart completed 24-of-38 for 374 yards and three scores and Ray Rice rushed for 10 yards but it wasn’t enough as Arizona State spoiled Rutgers’ first bowl appearance in 27 years with a wild Insight Bowl victory.

The shootout in the desert saw the teams compile 1,210 yards — a record for any bowl game. Jeremy Ito’s 48-yard goal with 12:56 remaining gave Rutgers a 33-31 advantage, but the Sun Devils took the lead for good on a 42-yard touchdown pass three minutes later.

“My biggest fear,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said after his club finished its campaign at 7-5, “”was getting into a shootout with this team.”

7.
Oct. 18, 2007: Rutgers 30, South Florida 27 — Andrew DePaola threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Brock off a fake field goal to give the Scarlet Knights the lead for good, as another Thursday Night thriller ended with a Rutgers Stadium-capacity crowd storming the field in celebration of a win over the No. 2-ranked Bulls.

Ray Rice rushed for 181 yards on a career-high 39 carries for the Scarlet Knights, who rebounded after consecutive losses one month prior knocked them out of the Top 25.

Clinging to a 20-17 lead late in the third quarter, Jeremy Ito jogged onto the field for what looked like a 32-yard field goal attempt.

DePaola, the holder, fielded the snap and rolled right, barely avoiding a sack before floating his first career pass into the outstretched arms of Brock, Rutgers’ tight end who sprinted into paydirt for an insurmountable lead.

“We haven’t done a lot of that around here,” Schiano said of the fake. “Thank God it worked.”

8.
Oct. 31, 2009, Rutgers 28, UConn 24 — Tim Brown scored on an 81-yard touchdown pass with 22 seconds left to rally Rutgers and spoil UConn’s first home game since Jasper Howard was stabbed to death outside a school dance on Oct. 18.

The play was especially meaningful for Brown, who grew up in the same Miami neighborhood as Howard and considered the Huskies’ fallen cornerback his best friend.

I just went out there and dedicated that game to him,” Brown said.

UConn appeared on its way to victory after taking a 24-21 lead on a fourth-down scoring run with under a minute to play, but Rutgers refused to back down in a game it controlled for most of the afternoon at Rentschler Field.

On the first play of the game-winning drive, freshman quarterback Tom Savage threw a perfect dart to Brown, who outraced the entire UConn secondary to the end zone.

“He made one of the best plays you could probably make in college football,” said Savage who threw for 234 yards en route to his first Big East road victory. “He just made the play and I’m sure (Howard) is proud of him.”

9.
Oct. 9, 2004: Rutgers 37, Vanderbilt 34 — Brian Leonard scored four touchdowns, including a one-yard run with 1:11 remaining, as the Scarlet Knights rallied from a 27-3 second-half deficit to stun their SEC foes in Nashville, Tenn. Leonard, who scored all four of his TDs in the second half, totaled 118 all-purpose yards and Ryan Hart completed 31 of 40 passes for 344 yards and two scores.

Rutgers scored touchdowns on five of its six second-half possessions, and outscored Vanderbilt 21-0 in the fourth quarter.

“It was very important for us as a football program to win a game like this,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said after his club raised its record to 3-2.

So who was Vanderbilt’s quarterback that game? None other than Chicago Bears signal caller Jay Cutler, who completed 14 of 18 passes for 260 yards and a TD but was flagged for an illegal forward pass that ended the Commodores’ rally with 11 seconds to play.

The win, at a soldout Rentschler Field, snapped a three-game losing streak to UConn and moved Rutgers to the brink of bowl-eligibility at 5-2.

Ray Rice led all rushers with 217 yards (then a career-high) and Brian Leonard, Tres Moses and Sam Johnson all hauled in touchdown passes from Hart, a senior who was benched in favor of Teel the previous week despite holding the distinction of Rutgers’ career passing leader.

About Keith Sargeant

Keith Sargeant is a graduate of Middlesex County College and Kean University. A Home News Tribune staff writer since August 1997, Keith has been covering Rutgers sports since 2000, serving as the Scarlet Knights' football beat writer since 2006.

Degaz,
Thanks for the comment. Thinking here is that the importance of that Cincinnati win, which secured Rutgers' first bowl berth in 27 years and the dominant fashion in which they won it, makes it the second most memorable game of the decade.

I agree that from sheer edge-of-your-seat entertainment, despite the end result, the West Virginia-Rutgers game is better. But '05 Rutgers-Cincy was more memorable to me since had they lost that game, there's no guarantee of a bowl considering how bad they lost the previous two games to Louisville and USF.

A few more things that made the Dec. 28, 2006 Texas Bowl win over Kansas State even more memorable was that:
1) K-State knocked off Texas in November of that year
2) RU finished ranked #12 in the final polls - just ahead of Texas
3) That season, capped by the Texas Bowl win, brought "recruiting capital" to RU which enabled us to bring in the best recruiting class in RU history this past season

The papajohns bowl. 2008. NC State was the hottest team in the ACC with star freshman Russell Wilson at QB and a lot of pundits were picking them to beat RU. But Rutgers just continues to win bowl games b/c that's just what the program does now. Rutgers gets to and wins bowl games even against hot BCS conference teams. This marked the first game with those types of expectations.

I would have dropped #8 or #10 and added in the Oct. 29, 2005, 31-21 victory over Navy. Not only did that win guarantee RU's first winning season since 1992, but it was payback for our 54-21 slaughter at the hand's of Navy the year before.

Honorable mention would have been the September 3, 2005 loss to Illinois, if for no other reason than Brian Leonard's leap and subsequent 83 yard outrunning of Illinois' DB's.

Just goes to show you that this program that Schiano and company has built on the Banks is for real and I think that even brighter days are ahead of us. Here's to looking back 10 years from now and dreaming of brighter stars and bigger milestones than we've hit these past 10 years. It's been a pretty good run so far.

Happy New Year to all the RU fans out there who are dreaming the same dreams I'm having for this program.

The final Big Ten match and a weekend to go over .500 The last weekend of the regular season....and Rutgers is sub-.500. Let me catch my breath. It’s been a rough season: the high of putting Nick Suriano on the mat coupled with the low of not having Anthony Ashnault. Injuries and a lack of […]